Third Time's a Charm
by isaacswolfsbane
Summary: A next-gen collection. Rated T to be safe for future stories.
1. Third Time's a Charm

**AN:** This is for the _Disney Character Competition _

**March Hare; **Write a scene where someone's serving tea.

* * *

"Harry, George, I assume you know why I called you here?" McGonagall asked as they stepped out of the fire into her office. It had changed a lot since Dumbledore had died. The once slightly chaotic and cluttered office was now neat and tidy. A few things had stayed the same though; the pensieve in the cabinet – although that was now full of McGonagall's memories, Fawkes' perch was still in the same place – Harry doubted the bird ever used it though, and of course the portraits of the old headmasters were all there with Dumbledore in the centre.

Harry and George were not here, however, to look around the office. Stood in the corner were their children James and Fred looking worried and grinning at the same time. Harry realised that McGonagall had obviously called them there because they'd gotten themselves into trouble pulling pranks again. The grins on their faces suggested it was a good prank; Harry would have to remember to ask James about it later. First though, Harry and George would have to play the stern parents in front of McGonagall. Why she hadn't written to Ginny and Angelina Harry didn't know.

"Now boys, I know what you must be thinking but you aren't in any trouble," McGonagall said to the kids, "come and sit over here and have some tea." She went over to the corner of her office where a tea set sat, and began to make it herself rather than call on a house elf to help.

As McGonagall was buys making the tea, Harry and George cornered their kids.

"Oi, Fred," George said to his son, "what do you think you're playing at. I've had to close the shop to come and sort you out. Your mother's out visiting family so she couldn't look after it"

"Honestly dad, I don't know. Professor McGonagall just called us up here, I thought it was because of the last prank we pulled but apparently we're not in trouble so I don't know," Fred replied.

"Honest," James chimed in, "we really don't know. I don't know what Fred's getting worked up about us pranking for, you know she always lets us off. I think she's got a soft spot for you because you remind her of Uncle Fred," he directed the last part of his sentence to his cousin.

"Does she know about your last prank?" Harry asked. The boys shook their heads in response, "good, we'll talk about it later when McGonagall isn't here," the boys nodded and shut up as McGonagall came over levitating the tea in front of her before placing it on the table.

"I know you must be confused to why I've called you all here, and why I requested that your fathers be here instead of your mothers," McGonagall told the boys, "the truth is I'm actually impressed with you both"

At this, twin looks of surprise appeared on the boys faces. A similar expression had appeared on Harry and George's faces, although they tried not to show it.

"I know it's you two that's responsible for the pranks that keep going on, and I know you've edited some Weasley products to suit your needs," George could no longer hide the surprise on his face, he knew his son was following the family line of pranking but he didn't know his products were being used. George couldn't help feeling impressed with his son. But being the prankster that he was, George rounded on his son with a fake look of anger on his face.

"You've been using my products?" He roared, slightly scaring his son. Fred just nodded in response, not trusting himself to speak.

George just laughed, "you should have told me, you know I'd help you make any new products you needed," Fred visibly relaxed at this, letting out a little chuckle. McGonagall glared at him when he said this; obviously she wasn't too keen on more Weasley products in her school.

"What I called you all here today for," McGonagall continued, getting annoyed at all the interruptions, "is because I think James and Fred are very talented wizards, and I thought they should be taught more challenging magic. I hear Fred can already produce a patronus and James is well on his way…"

"Actually, I can do one now," James interrupted, "it's a stag, like dads and granddads! Do you want to see?"

"Not now, James," McGonagall replied with a scowl. Fed up of the interruptions she got up to serve the tea and let the families discuss the knowledge they'd just learnt. As she placed the last cup in front of Harry he turned to look at her.

"Professor, what did you mean about teaching our kids more advanced magic? You can't be thinking of bumping them up to NEWT level before they've even taken their OWLs?" Harry asked her, an inquisitive look on his face.

"No, of course not," McGonagall paused to take a sip of her tea, "I meant offering them lessons on choosing to become an animagus. I know your father was one, Harry, and I'm sure you and Fred would have loved to be able to transform, wouldn't you George? I just feel that teaching them this in a safe environment would be a good idea. I wouldn't want anything to happen to them"

James and Fred's faces lit up at this exchange. James had always wanted to be an animagus, something fast like a wolf – a proper one though, not a werewolf. Fred had had a similar thought, but something sneakier to help with his pranks. Harry and George looked unconvinced at this though.

"Professor, are you sure they're ready? I mean, they are only fifth years," Harry asked, George nodding along to his question.

"Boys, they're the brightest wizards since you were at school. Of course, they aren't as bright as Hermione but they are at a similar level to Mr. Malfoy. Please, at least think about it. I really think these boys are ready for that level of magic," McGonagall insisted, she really did care for these boys and wanted the best for them. She wanted them to do their namesakes proud.

"Well, if you think it's okay then I say Freddie can learn if he wishes," George spoke up, "I know Fred and I would have jumped at the chance in our fifth year, and little Freddie isn't so different to us"

"I suppose if Fred's learning then there's no way to stop James; I'd rather you teach him properly than Fred relay the information back to him," Harry reluctantly agreed.

"You've won this time boys," George said to his son and James, who were sitting there looking rather smug, "it's a good job you had McGonagall in your corner or I'm not sure old Harry would have caved," George finished this with a smirk, letting the boys know full well there was never any chance he'd let Harry stop them from doing something.

Harry went to take a sip of his tea, and realised he'd already finished it.

"Well, on that note I think we should be leaving. Thank you for the tea, Professor. I'll see you at Christmas boys," Harry said standing up to leave.

George stood up to join Harry. He reminded the boys to write, with a stare to let them know that if he didn't hear about their latest prank they'd be in trouble, before stepping into the fireplace to go back home.

Before Harry could step through, McGonagall pulled him aside.

"I really do mean the best Harry. I see how much potential these boys have and they remind me so much of their namesakes that I'd hate for anything to happen to them. It was such a same that such tragedy happened to them so young, I'd hate for anything to happen to these boys," McGonagall looked genuinely distressed at this thought, "I'll teach them both Occlumency as well, hopefully they'll be better at it than you were. I know it's been quiet since you defeated You-Know-Who, but I think they should be prepared for whatever happens"

"I know, Professor. Hopefully these two will fare up just fine. Third time's a charm," and with that, Harry went through the fireplace to join George and wait for their sons' letter.

* * *

**AN: **This is my first time writing all of these characters, so I apologise if anyone is majorly OOC or something.


	2. Decisions

**AN: I have read the Animagus page on the Harry Potter wiki and I know that you can't choose your Animagus form, but for the purposes of this fic I have decided that you can choose your form.**

For the _Disney Character Competition;_

_**Kenai;** Write about someone's Animagus & why?_

* * *

Fred and James had just finished their third lesson with McGonagall and they had learnt all they could about the theory behind becoming an Animagus. Even McGonagall had decided it was time for them to choose their animal forms. Fred had Quidditch practice to get to; he'd decided to fully take after his namesake and became one half of a world class beater duo along with their cousin Hugo. Lily had become a pretty good chaser too, James and Rose were the only ones from their families who were currently at Hogwarts that hadn't decided to try out for Quidditch; Teddy had been a Keeper for Hufflepuff, but Victoire had decided to stick to cheering her boyfriend on. James and Rose had followed Victoire's route of just being a supporter; this meant that their family at least had someone cheering them on when they were playing each other. Well, Fred, Hugo and Lily did; just because Albus was his brother and Scorpius was dating Rose it didn't mean that they would support them over their house. It was that game this week, and Mark Thomas was really pushing the Gryffindor team to do well; Albus and Scorpius had been insufferable last time they'd won and the team was determined not to let this happen again.

James decided to take this opportunity, before the non-Gryffindor and non-Quidditch playing Rose found him, to write a letter to his parents.

_Mum & Dad, _

_Fred and I have just had our third lesson with Professor McGonagall and she has decided it's time we chose our Animagus forms. I still can't believe she decided to teach us! _

_Anyway, she told us we had to be really careful because we were going to be stuck with that form forever. I was just wondering if you had any suggestions; I was thinking maybe something I could run around in, but Fred has decided he wants to be something smaller and sneaky to help him with his pranking and if Fred and I are learning together I don't want to choose anything that would clash with whatever he chose._

_Did either of you ever want to become an Animagus? I realised I never asked after our first conversation about it._

_Love James._

When Rose, Albus and Scorpius finally found him he'd been sitting in the library reading for at least half an hour. They were slow today.

"Sorry we took so long coming to find you Jamie," Rose said as they got to him, she was the only one allowed to call him that, "but Albus insisted we go and spy on the start of Gryffindor training" Albus just glared at Rose when she said this, obviously he didn't like all the blame falling on him.

"Yeah, but Scorp agreed that it was a good idea!" Albus piped in, trying to move the blame onto someone else.

"I did not!" Scorpius argued, "I just said if it would shut you up then I'd go with you. We didn't get to see very much anyway because Thomas saw us so made us leave"

By this point the four teenagers were making way too much noise for Madam Pince, so she came over and kicked them out of the library.

Even though Albus was family, the two Slytherins weren't very welcome in the Gryffindor common room and Gryffindor were even less welcome in the Slytherin one so they made their way outside and sat by the Black Lake. It was nearing winter, but luckily Rose had become quite good at fire and warming charms so soon they were huddled around a fire to keep warm.

"So what did you get up to in your lesson today Jamie?" Rose asked; she'd begged McGonagall to let her learn how to become an Animagus as well, but McGonagall had refused and told her if she came top in the end of year exams she could learn next year. Rose wasn't sure she'd actually meant it, but had started studying so much recently she almost equalled the amount of time her mum spent in the library. It was only when Gryffindor Quidditch practice was on that she didn't study; she enjoyed spending time in a smaller group sometimes since her family was so large. Plus this was how she'd got James to actually like Scorpius in the first place so thought she should probably make it some sort of a tradition that they spent this time together. Plus, it was the only time she got to see James much without Fred there distracting him with plans for their next prank.

"Oh, much of the same really, we were just going through the theory of it again that we learnt last year," James replied nonchalantly.

"Is that it?!" Scorpius looked annoyed, he was hanging off their every word looking to teach himself, and maybe Rose, how to do it without a teacher being there. No one in his family had learnt to be an Animagus before so he was determined to be the first. He didn't count the time when his father was turned into a ferret in his fourth year, it was a teacher that had transformed him anyway and not himself.

"We do get to choose our animal forms now though, McGonagall told us to have picked them by next week."

"Jamie that sounds so interesting, I wonder if she'll actually let you start trying to turn next week?" Rose chimed in, fascinated by the whole subject.

"I doubt it," James said, looking annoyed, "she'll probably want us to transfigure her desk into whatever animal we choose, she seems to love demonstrating that"

During this conversation Albus had been oddly quiet and distant. Rose noticed this so she went over to him.

"What's wrong, Albie?" She asked, genuinely concerned.

"It's just all this talk of being taught to become an Animagus; Grandpa James wasn't taught, he did it himself, so why should they get special treatment to be taught" Albus replied, looking genuinely confused.

"It's not like we asked, we would have just taught ourselves like we started last year, but since she offered it seemed stupid to turn down" James told him, hoping to cheer him up a little, "anyway, Quidditch practice should be over by now, shall we go and meet the rest of them before heading to dinner?"

The next week went by slowly, but James and Fred endured it and it finally was time for their lesson with McGonagall. Their hopes of actually doing something interesting were dashed when they entered the room and saw different objects placed around the room. Obviously James had been right and they were just changing objects into their chosen animals. It had taken them almost the whole week, but they had finally decided on their animal forms.

Fred had decided to choose something that would help him in his pranks by sneaking around the school. He'd started by thinking about an animal such as a mouse, but it was a bit too small and boring – plus Peter Pettigrew was a rat and he was not a good person to take after. He'd also considered a snake, but there were the Slytherins and the Basilisk that stopped him from that. He didn't want to be anything too typically girly either, such as a rabbit. He finally came to a conclusion in potions on Thursday. He wondered why he hadn't thought of it before as it was the obvious answer – a cat. Hogwarts allowed cats as pets, so he wouldn't stand out if someone saw a cat running around. He'd thought about being an owl as Hogwarts had plenty of them, but an owl flying through Hogwarts anywhere except the Great Hall was bound to stand out. So that's how he'd settled on a cat.

James had had a similar difficulty running through his head, but at the other end of the scale. He'd wanted to be something big and exciting that could run fast and had the added bonus of being quite dangerous if he wanted to be. His first thought had been a wolf, but he'd dismissed that idea because someone might think he was a werewolf and dangerous. He'd been struggling to find an animal he really liked, he thought that maybe he could choose something that flew, but after thinking about being an Eagle or an Owl for a minute he'd decided that he wouldn't like that. He really was at a loss for what to choose until Fred told him he'd decided to become a cat. Then the obvious answer hit him, he'd be a big cat. It took him another day to finally settle on being a leopard. He'd thought about being a tiger, but they were just too big. A leopard had seemed about right. He knew this meant he wouldn't be able to use his animal form to get out of trouble from pranks, but he had his father's invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map.


End file.
